How Long to Cook a Turkey Breast

Not only for Thanksgiving, turkey recipes are one of the most adored food recipes, across the world. There are different ways of cooking turkey breasts that add in to the taste and nutrition to the various recipes like salads, stir fries, sandwiches, cutlets and many other food recipes made using turkey. How long turkey breast needs to be cooked basically depends on two basic things, the cooking method and the size of the turkey breast.

There are a few other 'minor' factors that affect the time taken for cooking turkey breast, they are the meat-bone ratio (a boneless turkey breast will surely take less time to cook than its counter part) and marinade that is used, which also affects the cooking time as a heavy marination would take more time than that of the other.

In a Crock Pot

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs fresh turkey breast (with bone and partial skin)
• 2 cups of turkey stock
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 2 celery ribs, sliced
• 1 big onion, cut into 4 pieces
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon each of dried thyme and dried sage
• Pepper and salt to taste
• 4 teaspoons arrowroot starch

Procedure

Rub dried thyme and dried sage all over on the turkey breast. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and brown the breast in it for about 5 minutes for each side. Place the cooked turkey in the crock pot and then add all the vegetables, strained turkey stock (you can also use chicken stock or water as well). Bring the mixture to boil and heat it up, until the stock gets reduced to about 1/4th of its original quantity. Add pepper and salt to taste, into the mixture.

Take 2 tablespoons water and mix arrowroot starch in it (avoid clots) and pour it in the mixture in from the crock pot. Stir the mixture until the starch gets combined in it. Cook until the temperature in the thickest part of the meat gets 165 Fahrenheit. When placed on medium to high heat, it can take somewhere around 2 hours and 45 minutes and when cooked on lower heat, it will require time for about 5 hours to 6 hours.

In an Oven

Ingredients

• 5 lb whole turkey breast (with bone)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 1 teaspoon each of bell pepper and salt
• 2 teaspoons each of chopped dried thyme leaves and fresh thyme leaves
• ½ cup of butter
• ¼ cup of dry white wine
• 4 teaspoons of arrowroot starch

Procedure

Preheat the oven at about 325 Fahrenheit and place the turkey breast (in a baking pan, of course), as the skin side up and roast it for an hour. Insert a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the turkey breast (only make sure that it doesn't touch the bone). At the other hand, mix melted butter, salt, bell pepper, dry white wine, chopped garlic and thyme. Brush half of this mixture to the roasted turkey and roast it for half hour more. Brush in the remaining butter mixture and cook the turkey for about an hour more or until the thermometer reads 180 Fahrenheit.

Settle the roasted turkey breast for 15 minutes, on room temperature and gather the meat dripping in a pan. Add water if necessary so as the quantity of the dripping gets to approximately 2 cups. Heat the pan and add the arrowroot and water mixture to it. Stir it for a minute and let it boil for a minute as well. Serve this soup with the roasted turkey breast and start to gobble!

In a Bag

Ingredients

• 6 lbs whole turkey breast
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 2 onion, quartered
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• Bell pepper and salt to taste

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 320 Fahrenheit, sprinkle some bell pepper and salt on the cleaned turkey breast. Sprinkle the flour on the bottom of the bag and place the turkey breast chopped onion and chopped celery on it. Seal the bag and make small hole in it, with help of a fork. Bake this bag in the preheated oven for about 3 hours to 3½ hours. You may also like to brush the turkey with butter first, before putting the pepper and salt.

If you are using frozen turkey, never forget to thaw it before making the dish and never buy a pre stuffed turkey to avoid any complications like food poisoning. If you have to, then follow the USFDA's instructions and then make a healthy choice.